Russia plans to build 13,009 miles (mi) of pipelines through to 2018, which will have a substantial impact on natural gas trade flows into Europe and crude oil and natural gas flows into Asia, specifically into China and North Korea, says research and consulting firm GlobalData.
The company’s latest report states that Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), which includes Russia and most of the former Soviet Union countries except Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, will witness the largest addition of oil and gas pipelines globally between 2014 and 2018.
With 36,650 mi of planned pipeline length additions, the EMEA region will be the single largest contributor to the global total of 90,101 mi, accounting for 41% during the forecast period.
Russia’s key major projects include the Trans-Korean gas pipeline and the Yakutia-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok gas pipeline, both 1,988 mi, and the 1,651-mi Altai Gas system into Xinyuan, China.
As a result of the recently announced Russia-China natural gas “mega-deal”, new natural gas pipeline systems will be built, linking Russia’s Siberian production fields to China’s industrial centers, with initial natural gas deliveries scheduled to commence in 2018.
Carmine Rositano, GlobalData’s Managing Analyst covering Downstream Oil & Gas, says: “European countries are now seeking to avoid over-dependence on Russian gas supplies.
This has triggered plans for several new pipeline projects in the EMEA region, with the aim of providing access to natural gas from the Caspian Sea and Central Asia to the key European consumers of gas. One such project is the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, which aims to bring natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe.”
More natural gas pipelines than any other type will be built in EMEA by 2018, accounting for approximately 82% of the region’s additions, says GlobalData. Planned projects for the transportation of crude oil, refined products and Natural Gas Liquids will account for almost 13%, 4% and 1% of all planned length additions in the region, respectively.
